Memory modules, such as memory cards, are commonly used in electronic devices, such as personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, digital media players, cellular telephones. For various storage applications, memory modules, such as flash memory modules, may be configured as removable memory that can be removably coupled to a host device, such as a processor of an electronic device.
A typical memory module may include one or more memory devices coupled to a memory controller. Each memory device may be a NAND or a NOR flash memory device, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, static random access memory (SRAM) device, or the like and may include an array of memory cells, such as non-volatile memory cells. The memory controller provides data signals, address signals, and control signals to each of the one or more memory devices.
The memory controller is usually placed in communication with a host via an input/output interface (e.g., which is often referred to as an input/output bus) for coupling to a host device to form part of an electronic system. An example of an input/output bus is a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface.
The input/output interface typically provides one or more data signal links (often referred to as lanes), e.g., 1, 4, 8, 16, etc., over which the controller can receive data signals from the host and/or over which the controller can send data signals to the host. For example, the input/output data signal lanes may include unidirectional or bidirectional data signal lines. The number of input/output data signal lanes is often referred to as the input/output bus width of the input/output interface. However, conventional interfaces are limited in that the same input/output data signal lanes that are used for output are also typically used for input.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for alternatives for configuring data signal lines of input/output interfaces on memory modules.